| 651 and did considerable missionary work in different places.
On July 3, 1834, he was chosen a member of the High Council of Zion, in Clay County, Missouri. Soon after he went again to Kirtland, where he was engaged for a time as a teacher in the school of the elders. He was ordained an apostle in February, 1835.
On May 11,1838, he was expelled from the church at Far West, Missouri, for apostasy; and during the trouble in Missouri he used all his influence against the leaders of the church. In 1845 he was identified with the movement under Rigdon, warmly indorsed [endorsed] his claims, and on April 8 of that year was appointed one of the Twelve Apostles in Rigdon's organization.
In 1847 he with others at Kirtland, Ohio, effected an organization which they claimed was a reorganization of the church, and called on David Whitmer to assume the presidency, claiming that he was ordained by Joseph Smith on the 8th of July, 1834, as his successor. In March, 1847, Elder McLellin, by the authority of this organization, commenced the publication of a paper at Kirtland, called The Ensign of Liberty, in which he contended that the proper name of the church was "The Church of Christ," and advocated the claims of David Whitmer as President of the Church. In 1847 Elder McLellin went west, and in September called on David Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, and Hiram Page, at Richmond, Missouri, who accompanied him to Far West, to visit John Whitmer. The five counseled together, and during their counsel received several communications through David Whitmer. As a result of this counsel and instruction given in these revelations through David Whitmer, Elder McLellin, who had previously been rebaptized at Kirtland, Ohio, rebaptized these four men and reordained them high priests, and also ordained David Whitmer to the Presidency, and John Whitmer to be his counselor.
This organization so far as we know was short lived, and after struggling in vain to perpetuate it, the participants abandoned the effort. Elder McLellin finally settled at Independence, Missouri, where he died on Tuesday, March 13, 1883
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